Geezer Gatherings

North Rose Central Class of '52

   In the past six days I have had two meals with geezer groups.   One a breakfast with  the ROMEO's (Retired Older Men Eating Out) of the Fayetteville United Methodist Church and the other a lunch today with with some of my classmates of the North Rose Central School class of 1952.    Although the ROMEO's gather every Wednesday morning, I only see them every few months.  However, it is fun to get together with them to catch up on the doings of a community we lived in for several years.   One member of the ROMEO's consistently ribs me about the success of Cornell athletics (He is a Syracuse University fan) and I always tell him about the Cornell related Nobel prize winners.   The banter is light hearted with a good number of laughs and fortunately we all know the boundaries and avoid being offensive.     This is not true for all geezer gatherings so I am grateful for these fun filled and peaceful gatherings.

L. to R.:  Rose, Millie, Bob, Camera Shy Spouse

     Today Nancy and I had a leisurely drive to Newark, New York for the lunch with several of my aforementioned classmates.   It was our first longer trip in our Smart Car.   Speaking for myself, I found it to be a comfortable two hour each way trip.   Even if we did have some rain and fog.   Ten classmates and three spouses were in attendance.   The ten of us represent about half of the class that is still alive out of the class of 28.   We have been getting together for class reunions starting with our 25 year reunion at five to ten or more year intervals until recently when we have been planning annual to semi-annual luncheons.   Next year (2012) will be our 60th reunion year so perhaps we will have a bigger event.   All of us are well into geezerhood.   Some even have great grandchildren.   Many of us have survived with relatively few age challenges while others have have significant medical issues or are deceased.   I suppose our class  is a microcosm of the general population by age but certainly not in ethnicity.
     These gatherings can be challenging for spouses since they typically do not share the same experiences of the classmates.   Usually we are rehashing events of our teen years that have no relevance to the spouses.    Frankly, I think reunions can be overdone.   Unless one can move on beyond reminiscing my interest begins to flag and I am ready to move on to current events.    While Nancy and I  make it a point to inquire about what is going on in their lives, we notice that few pick up the idea of asking us what we are doing.   I hope that this is not totally true of all geezers but just an anomaly of this group.   I conclude that geezer reunions are to be taken in small doses.   A couple of hours of conversation and a good meal suffice.      Meanwhile some of us who remain tech savvy know that social networking over great distances can be accomplished with Facebook, e-mail and the like.   Will face to face reunions be the thing the current generation when they become  geezers?   Who knows what that future world will be like?